Reading Juice

Mark’s interest in web design dates back to 2000 when he was a given a weighty tome on HTML. He sat down with the book, a computer running Windows 98, opened Notepad and made his first website. At the time hot and cold running internet wasn’t commonplace, and certainly hadn’t made it to Mark’s home. So that’s where his experiments ended.

In 2009 Mark realised how useful a knowledge of web-design and development could be as he started to publish his first blogs online. Mark brought some cheap web space and began tinkering again, experimenting with self-publishing other kinds of content.

Reading Juice was the result. Over time it evolved into a website of Children’s Poetry, published under the name Mark Megson. It was an opportunity to experiment with illustration as well as create fun, shareable content with a highly targeted audience.

Today Reading Juice attracts over 8,000 unique visitors a month, has a bounce rate of 35%, and an average of 4 pages per session. In 2017 Mark realised that the site, and some of the content, could be improved. This involved editing, and in some cases removing, some of the poems, vectorising the artwork, and completely redesigning the site using WordPress. The new and improved Reading Juice was relaunched in 2018.

Some short stories that were once published on the site caught the attention of American children’s book publisher Aviva Gittle, which resulted in Mark and Aviva co-writing the book The Boy Who Bounced to the Moon.

Welcome

Welcome to Mark Jones Media – the online home of the work of Mark Jones. Working in both freelance creative and employed roles Mark has crafted a wide range of content, from copy to 3D-printed chocolate heads.

Mark's goal is to create unique content that entertains as much as it informs (and occasionally tastes good). This is achieved by tuning into original ideas and finding the element of fun in every job.

Mark is based in the South West, UK. He likes his detectives hard-boiled, his eggs runny, and his time travel non-paradoxical.